U.S. Ser. No. 08/821,607, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,657, filed Mar. 20, 1997 and assigned to the assignee of this invention, describes a motor vehicle steering apparatus including a steering column and an electric power assist apparatus on the steering column. The steering column includes a stationary mast jacket, a steering shaft rotatably supported on the mast jacket, and a steering hand wheel at an outboard end of the steering shaft. The electric power assist apparatus includes an electric motor and a speed reducer mounted on the mast jacket. A worm wheel of the speed reducer is rigidly connected to an output shaft of the speed reducer which, in turn, is connected to a steering gear of the motor vehicle. A worm gear of the speed reducer is driven by the electric motor and meshes with the worm wheel to transfer the torque of the electric motor to the speed reducer output shaft. The steering shaft is connected to the speed reducer output shaft through a torsion bar which resiliently twists when manual effort is applied at the steering hand wheel. A torque sensor on the speed reducer monitors relative rotation between the steering shaft and the speed reducer output shaft, and an electronic control module turns the electric motor on and off in accordance with signals from the torque sensor. The steering shaft is articulated between the steering hand wheel and the speed reducer in order to isolate the torque sensor from lateral runout of the steering shaft relative to the mast jacket. The steering apparatus according to this invention is a novel alternative to the steering apparatus described in the aforesaid U.S. Ser. No. 08/821,607.